We believe three basic changes are urgently needed: (1) time-limited contracts, (2) a clause that provides for reversion of unexploited rights, and (3) a specific new unchallengeable definition to replace historic “out of print” clauses that are not remotely relevant in the electronic age.

Watchman is nowhere near as good a novel as Mockingbird, but it might prove an equally significant one, if it helps us look to history for our lessons, rather than to our consoling, childish, whitewashed fables.